Afternoon News Update: April 11

A child was hit by a bus on Rockford’s west side. It happened this morning in the 2400 block of Yonge Street. Officials say the child received only minor injuries. WROK will provide more information as it becomes available.
Governor Pat Quinn was in the Stateline Thursday to announce that a passenger railway service between Chicago and Rockford could begin operating next year. The state of Illinois will be contributing $223 million for the project. Officials say the once-a-day Amtrak service will eventually expand to two-round trips along the Union Pacific line. The route will also include stops in Elgin, Harvard and Belvidere.
ComEd says the cause of this morning’s power outage was due to a squirrel running on the power lines. This caused the Walker School and a few intersections along Spring Creek to lose electricity. ComEd has restored all power. The outage impacted more than 600 customers in all.
About 200 animals have been killed in a fire that destroyed a barn near Whitewater, WI. Authorities don't yet know what started the blaze on Thursday that killed sheep, goats, lambs, dogs and birds. By the time crews arrived on scene, the roof of the barn had already collapsed.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner are discussing education policy at a joint appearance Friday afternoon in Chicago. The two have been focusing on different missions as of late. Rauner and his wife have given millions of dollars for charter schools and teacher merit pay. Quinn wants to make Illinois' temporary income tax hike permanent to invest more money in schools.
A proposal to outlaw police ticket quotas in Illinois has cleared the state Senate and will be considered in the House. The legislation says police officers can't be evaluated on the number of citations they write. The sponsor says it will let officers use more discretion in deciding whether to give someone a ticket.

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